June 23, 2011
Former professor Younan Xia ranked one of top materials scientists
Younan Xia, UW Professor of Chemistry from 1997 to 2007, was recently ranked number four on The Times Higher Education list of “Top Materials Scientists of the Past Decade.” The scientists named were ranked by the influence of their publications during the period from 2000 to 2010, as measured by the number of citations per paper. The list is essentially a “who’s who” of the outstanding scientists in this field. The top 11 investigators on the list achieved an extraordinary average of over 100 citations per paper for 26 or more papers. Ranked at number four on the list was Professor Younan Xia, currently on the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis. Xia began his independent academic career in the UW Department of Chemistry in 1997 and was on the faculty through 2007, for most of the period during which the influential papers were published. Chemistry Chair Paul Hopkins believes that Xia “is an extraordinary scientist, with a unique combination of creativity, intellect, and energy that he focuses on his scientific pursuits. We were very sorry to lose Professor Xia, but are proud that he was able to develop his extraordinary program at our institution. I congratulate him!”